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| Rabbi Yakov Horowitz |
I don’t know how far they will go to smear his name. They
will of course not succeed. But hints of that were evident in last week’s issue
of Ami Magazine that still declared neutrality on the Weberman issue and did a
cover story on Weberman’s attorney, George Farkas. Farkas had a very disparaging
attitude about Rabbi Horowitz. One which was not countered by Ami Editor Rabbi
Yitzchok Frankfurter who interviewed him. Not in the article or anywhere in the
magazine.
The fact is that Rabbi Horowitz has not only been attacked by
people in those circles. In the not too distant past he was attacked by some victim’s advocates because of
his principled opposition to the Markey Bill (which granted a onetime extension
to the statute of limitations for victims of sex abuse to sue their abusers and
enablers). Even though after some agonizing thoughts about the repercussion of
such an extension versus doing right by victims - I disagreed with him on that,
I think it was absolutely disgusting that some in those groups so heavily criticized
him for it. Some even wrote him off at the time as a serious advocate for victims.
I hope that all his former detractors now see the truly
heroic character of this man. How many people would put their careers on the
line – or spend as much time as he has in the court… or would have written the kind of essay
he wrote yesterday as a prominent Charedi educator..
The criticism (or worse) from Satmar and others will surely
increase. I am sure he has not heard the last of it.
I have never for a moment doubted his commitment to sex abuse
victims. I think that by now, everyone should recognize it – even those who
accused him of ‘selling out’ on the Markey Bill.
Knowing Rabbi Horowitz, he would probably be embarrassed by
such praise. But he certainly deserves it. And although he would never demand an
apology by those who so severely criticized him - it would still be nice if he
got one.
